Send a Prayer to the grave of R' Avraham Dov of Avritch

Passed away (yartzeit) on the 12th of Kislev, 1765-1840. Rabbi Avraham Dov of Avritch, a Chasidic Rebbe in Europe for forty years and in Safed for ten, was a disciple of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev and the first two Rebbes of the Chernobyl dynasty. His famous book of Chasidic commentary, Bat Ayin, was written in Europe, but he refused to allow it to be printed until he could 'expose' it to the air of the Holy Land and refine it. One of the most famous stories involving Rav Avritch was when the great earthquake of 24 Tevet 1837 began its deadly rumble and the men of Safed were just gathering in the houses of worship for afternoon prayers. At the Avreitsh Synagogue, the holy Rebbe Avraham Dov called out: "Come to me!" In a split second the men standing in the western half of the synagogue ran to the eastern half and huddled around the Rebbe, who cried out to G-d for mercy. The men watched in horror as the half of the synagogue -- where they had been standing seconds earlier -- collapsed in rubble. Their half remained intact; they had been spared the death that swallowed up a full ninety percent of Safed's population and almost all of her once-splendid synagogues and buildings - (the date of this incident, the 24th of Tevet, is almost as well known as his yartzeit!). Today, this synagogue includes the original Torah scroll that was read by the Avreitsher Rebbe. It is taken out only on Rosh Chodesh and holidays but it shares space in the aron hakodesh ('Holy Ark') with the other Holy Torah scrolls. Originally an Ashkenazic synagogue in accordance with the traditions from the Ukranian town of Avreitsh where Rav Avraham Dov had been Rebbe for 40 years before coming to Safed, the praying in the synagogue is according to Sephardic custom since 1948.